Sugden Frank Kay

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Biografie:
Frank Kay Sugden (1909-1967)
Frank Sugden died suddenly at his home in the Lake District in January last, at the comparatively early age of fifty-eight. He will be greatly missed by his many friends in the climbing world and outside it, and particularly by those who had the privilege of climbing with him over a period extending from the mid-thirties to recent years. He was elected to the Alpine Club in 1948.
He was a first class climber, especially on rock he was one of the few who, before the war, had led the Flake Crack on Scafell Central Buttress without assistance at the chockstone, then reckoned a considerable feat. His climbing was done almost wholly in this country and in the Alps, which he must have visited for nearly thirty years almost without a break, apart from the war.
The lost years, 1940-45, would probably have seen him at his best in the Alps, but he did a number of good climbs in the years following the war. He formed a particularly happy partnership with the late Pierre Maurys of Les Hauderes, in whose company he did such routes as the complete traverse of the Bouquetins, the South-east ridge of the Salbitschyn and, in icy conditions, the North ridge of the Dent Blanche.
He was a quiet, rather retiring man and perhaps on that account was not very well known in the Club. His outstanding characteristic was his selflessness, which showed itself in the way he devoted so much of his time to helping less talented performers, who were thus able to enjoy wider climbing horizons than would otherwise have been possible for them. There is no doubt that, had he chosen to climb only with his equals, he would have had a more impressive record, but this was a consideration which did not seem to trouble him. He was content to help others and to shoulder most of the responsibility at the informal climbing meets which, year after year, gave so much pleasure and enjoyment to his companions.
V. C. Chapman
Quelle: Alpine Journal Volume 72, 1967, Seite 360-361


Geboren am:
1909
Gestorben am:
1967